Monday, 14 December 2009

Times Have Changed But......

In three weeks time, we will be in 2010. A new year, and a new decade. This means that the year 1990 is 20 years ago.

Earlier this year, on my blog, I wrote that "To me, it seems that 1990 in some ways was so recent, and yet in others, it seems so long ago and so distant". I also opined, "However, for me, the past is over-rated. I wouldn't want to go back and live in 1990 again. I am much happier in the present day, for all its faults".

I stand by both statements. I wouldn't, for one moment, want to go back to Monday 1st January 1990. However, I have noticed that for all the societal and technological changes and advances, many aspects of human behaviour haven't changed. There is still greed, as seen by the bankers threatening to move abroad if their bonuses are taxed. There is still unfairness, where people who work hard and aren't paid or rewarded nowhere near enough for it, and yet others who are paid colossal amounts of money for doing comparatively little amounts of work. There is still bullying in schools and elsewhere and there are still rapists and paedophiles.

There are also still scapegoats. In the 1930's, it was Jews who were scapegoated for the ills of Germany. In truth, it was the great depression and the Treaty of Versailles which crippled Germany. In the 1950's and 1960's, coloured people and immigrants were scapegoated in the UK, with signs put up at boarding houses saying "No Irish, no blacks and no dogs". In the 1970's and 1980's, homosexuals were scapegoated and faced bigotry.

In the early 1990's, via the media and some politicians, single parents were demonised. In the late 1990's, as there was a booming economy, the unemployed were targeted, and the last few years have been the turn of Asylum Seekers to receive this treatment. I don't agree with mass immigration. It has to be curbed and halted. It is the fault of the two main parties who have been in power the last 30 years that this issue hasn't been dealt with, and hitherto, voters have turned to parties such as the BNP. However, it isn't solely mass immigration which is the cause of all of the UK's present problems.